A Guide to Making a Hunger Games Character
by LibrarianWho
Summary: (who doesn't suck.) Ahem. Hi. Hello. Welcome to my guide to making a Hunger Games character! Here you'll find snark, sarcasm, and everything you need to know about how to make a non-suckful citizen of Panem. May the odds be ever in your favour!
1. As Good as Any Potato

Ahem. Hi. Hello. Hello.

It's the Librarian here, fresh from the Whoniverse. The Doctor picked up some bad Hunger Games characters on his Timey-Wimey detector (don't ask, it's wibbly-wobbly) so he shoved me into this universe to help sort them out. It hurt a bit, mind you. Felt a bit cramped, kinda like I was being pulled and stretched and squashed all at the same time. Then there was this weird jolt – and the Doctor kicked me out of the TARDIS.  
But anyway! Here I am.  
So I'm looking at your character, and tsk tsk. You need a name, fast. Sweetmeat Applepie Honey Melon Dewdrop won't cut it, even if she's from somewhere as out of it as District One. So let's start there, then.

 **District 1  
** Ah! District One! This is where all the luxury items are produced. It's the wealthiest of the districts, and prides itself on having many victors. Naturally, being full of money, the names of their children are going to reflect that. Of course, this means that oftentimes you'll find something along the lines of Toffee Chickenwing Buttersc- nope. Never mind.  
 **Canon names:** Augustus, Cashmere, Glimmer, Gloss, Marvel  
Looking at these, we can see that the names from District One are going to be luxury items, rich-sounding adjectives, or Greek or Roman names. Think along the lines of precious gems or feminine products (just don't go for Tampax. Just imagine the jokes if your character gets an axe to the face!)  
 **Overused names:** Diamond, Shimmer, Silk  
 **Examples you can use:** Lace, Pearl, Garnet, Atalanta, Blaze, Rouge, Antoinette/Antoine, Platinum, Blade, Brilliance, Valour, Apollo, Beau, Iasus, Blanche, Sterling

 **District 2  
** District Two is the main producer of masonry for Panem. It produces its fair shares of Career tributes and victors, and its tributes tend to be far fiercer. Steer towards more Roman names for this one, or names that reflect building materials. Even go for the occasional natural name. Try and make their names similar to those of the Capitol (as they're the Capitol's lapdogs) but more like ones you'd hear for a fighter. If that makes sense. Which it doesn't. But whatever.  
 **Canon names:** Brutus, Cato, Clove, Cray, Darius, Enobaria, Lyme, Purnia, Romulus  
I've yet to see many characters from District Two, despite it playing such a huge part in the rebellion. So don't worry about getting an overused name. Just don't go for Clover, because duh. You'll get your head smashed in with a rock for copying Clove.  
 **Examples you can use:** Nolan, Remus (I cri everytiem), Jason, Victor, Mason, Odius, Titus, Titan, Blade, Alexis, Lupin (ffffff), Dagger, Copper, Juniper, Artemis, Albus, Augustus, Caelia, Claudia, Riddick, Ply, Slate, Flint, Serena, Smith

 **District 3  
** You can thank District Three for all of your technology, from the television in your house to the camera that the Capitol is using to stal- I mean, to make sure thieves are caught. Here, go for futuristic names, but try and make it subtle. Don't call your character Samsung or Cellphone. That's just stupid.  
 **Canon names:** Beetee, Wiress  
 **Examples you can use:** Fleck, Flash, Tallie, Chip, Cable, Wyre, Eleria, Dot, Pixel, Aurora, Link, Bolt, Mac, Render, Dell, Binary, Console

 **District 4  
** No, that's not the smell of fish and chips. Welcome to District Four, the fishing district! This is the last district to train career tributes, and as such their people are often strong. These names can be fairly normal, so don't worry about being too flash. Water-themed names are good, and so are the names from water-based mythology. Try and steer away from gods and goddesses, though. You won't see any self-respecting person walking down the street who's called Poseidon. Unless he is, of course, Poseidon.  
 **Canon names:** Annie, Finnick, Mags (possibly short for Margaret or Magdalene),  
 **Examples you can use:** Ariel, Nemo, Una, Muriel, Adrian, Caspian, Coral (but please be careful of this, it's a little overused), Wade, River, Amelia, Cress, Brook, Pier, Hook, Cliff, Morgan/Morgyn/some variation thereupon, Sebastian, Lynn, Pearl, Cordelia, Tyne, Finn

 **District 5  
** Who powers your lights? Who powers your television? Who powers the screens that air the Games every year? That's right, District Five. Again, choose futuristic names, but don't go overboard.  
 **Canon names:** Finch (I suppose, but it's not really canon), Porter Millicent  
 **Examples you can use:** Fuse, Wyre, Spark, Atom, Newt, Watson, Nina, Electra, Tesla, Brighton, Tessa, Faraday, Lux

 **District 6  
** This is where you get your transport from. Cars, hovercrafts, trains… they're all made right here. There aren't many character names to help us along at all, so feel free to go from names relating to the district's main industry.  
 **Canon names:** Titus  
Because of Titus, you might also like to choose Greek or Roman names, but I think it would be quite rare to see those in District Six.  
 **Examples you can use:** Aston, Cooper, Ford, Martin, Apollo, Carter, Cara, Harrison, Dakota (this one would be good because of the whole America thing, and can be used for other districts), Axel, Verona, Mercedes

 **District 7  
** Aha, good old District Seven. Paper, wood, sawdust. With this, tree names work, but try and make them interesting. And just by looking at Johanna, we can see that not every District 7 female is named Willow. They're much like District Four in that they have relatively normal names.  
 **Canon names:** Blight, Johanna  
 **Overused names:** This is where we start seeing more and more overused names. Willow is really popular, and so is Oak.  
 **Examples you can use:** Aspen, Leif, Ivy, Rowan, Mable, Shred, Ewan, Monty (see how many people get the reference!), Hunter, Finch, Ren, Linden

 **District 8  
** Here you get all of your cloth and thread and other textiles. Because of this, you can go for slightly more frilly names. And if Lahcé is a bit ridiculous, then go for natural-sounding names.  
 **Canon names:** Bonnie, Cecelia, Paylor, Twill, Woof  
 **My own character names:** Spindle  
 **Examples you can use:** Thread (be careful with this one, we all know what Thread's like), Penny, Spindle, Lacey, Weaver, Angora, Silk, Bunt, Sheer, Thimble, Bobbin, Bernina

 **District 9  
** Grain. Wheat, rice, barley, you name it. You get that from District Nine. There are no canon names here, not even from Capitol Couture, so go for names that relate to wheat or havesting.  
 **Examples you can use:** Maisie, Barley, Rye, Silo, Bran, Juno, Farro, Emmer, Amaranth, Demeter, Cybele, Barric, Granger

 **District 10  
** Ten is my favourite number, but probably not my favourite district. Here you get your livestock. Cows, sheep, pigs, goats, it all comes from Ten. Even with only one canon name, we can see that the names from District Ten don't necessarily relate to the industry.  
 **Canon names:** Dalton  
 **Examples you can use:** Ari, Philip, Fauna, Bram, Cat, Pelt, Nolan, Briar, Cass, Sable, Dyana, Talon, Auberon

 **District 11  
** And thus we step into the very dangerous territory of overused names. That's right. We're in District Eleven. You're very likely to hear natural names here (Rue is a flower and Thresh means 'to separate grain from a plant') so it's a safe bet to stick to those. Of course, don't go for names that crop up often (aha, great pun).  
 **Canon names:** Chaff, Martin, Rue, Seeder, Thresh  
 **My own character names:** Hazel (yes it's overused, I know. I was twelve. Shut up.)  
 **Overused names:** Willow, Rose, Hazel  
 **Examples you can use:** Bramley, Lark, Finch, Twill, Loren, Barley, Ambrosia, Pyrus, Fescues, Olive, Aster, Lennox

 **District 12  
** Aaaaaaaand finally, we come to District Twelve, the poorest of all the districts and the supplier of coal.  
Most tributes you'll see in fanfiction seem to come from here, probably because it's the district we hear the most about, and of course, everyone wants to be like Katniss. Except maybe the whole Prim-go-boom-boom part. But I digress.  
If you look at the canon names, most of the characters don't have natural names. So, go for those if you want, but otherwise pick something that sounds like your character's personality. Here we realise what a hypocrite I am. Please remember that I was twelve when I created these characters, so there are definitely overused names in my story.  
 **Canon names:** Bristel, Delly, Gale, Greasy Sae, Hazelle, Haymitch, Katniss, Leevy, Madge, Maysilee, Peeta, Posy, Primrose, Ripper, Rooba, Rory, Thom, Vick  
 **My own character names:** Bailey, Burnet, Ember, Kaitlynn, Melia, Posy, Willow  
 **Overused names:** Cole, Rose, Willow, basically any flowery name.  
 **Examples you can use:** Burnet, Myner, Slater, Jewett, Ash, Colton, Arden, Blair, Colman, Hilt, Dusty, Mist, Canary (only use this for really poncy merchants' kids)

 **How to Come up With Your Own Names  
** Use odd spellings. Caitlin = Kaitlynn, Burnett = Burnet, etc. _I_ s become _y_ s, _l_ s become _ll_ s, _c_ s become _k_ s.  
Google/use another search engine to find (just don't use Explorer. If so, you're on your own) synonyms for words. So if you were to use Glimmer for a District One girl, since that's already taken you could use Gleam, Shine, or Glint. Fierce could become Savage or Grim. That kind of thing.  
Combine words. That's how I came up with Melia. I was lying in bed one night back in 2014, and being the cheerful little twelve year old I was, I was thinking about malaria (don't ask). Somehow from that I came up with Melia (pronounced Me-lye-ah, not Amelia without the A). And it seemed perfect for the character, so I stuck with that. I've now become so attached to the name Melia that I can't imagine her being called anything else.  
For District One, look around your bedroom. Perhaps your underwear brand would work? Just imagine: Klein, the Victor of the 69th Hunger Games, won by strangling his fellow tributes with his boxers. Okay. Don't imagine that. But think of toiletries. Makeup brands. Book titles, for Gale's sake.

 **DON'T** ** _EVER_** **USE NAMES YOU'D SEE TODAY!** The only exceptions to this are Districts Four and Seven, and even then you're pushing it. There've been too many fanfics where I've seen " _As always, ladies first! Chelsea Wilson! And now, for the boys! Justin Andrews!_ " **NO.** First, surnames tend to be strange. You're not going to see any Sparkle Glitter Buttina Wilsons walking around in District One. Unless her parents hate her. Sparkle Glitter Buttina Sattine might be more plausible.  
Melia's surname is Cressview, which sounds a lot like the ones you hear in District Twelve. That was the point. And her friend Bailey is Bailey Birling. They both sound like regular people from Twelve. So I give you permission to use both of those in your fanfiction.

So there we have it! Now you know how to come up with names for your tributes. If you'd like, send me your character names and I'll see if they work, or I can help you come up with even more names.  
Next up, we'll have appearances. As Effie would say, " _Chins up, smiles on_!"  
Don't forget to bootysmash that favourite button, add to your follows so you can catch updates like Prim caught fire, and review like a Gamemaker!

Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be _ever_ in your favour!


	2. Twirl For Me

No, this is not the start of a bad porno. I promise.

 _Sweetmeat Applepie Honey Melon Dewdrop was a beautiful girl. Her hair fell down to her plump, perfectly-shaped ass in delicate, luscious waves of honey golden lilac blonde. Her bright blue silver orbs flashed with intelligence and splendour. Her petite, voluptuous melons were perfect, given her name, and she had curves in all the right places. She had naturally manicured nails, abd_ nsagDLFngzhnsdjh5456topytryj/l;

Sorry, that was the sound of me smashing my head on the keyboard so hard my brain liquidised and splashed from my ears in a beautiful greyish-pink waterfall.

Please, my darlings, don't EVER write like that. Nobody wants to hear about how petite and voluptuous Sweetmeat's knockers are. Nobody can have both petite and voluptuous anything, so don't even think about writing that sentence.

And the writing is completely ridiculous; it wouldn't even get a passing grade in a descriptive writing exam.

 **District 1**

If you're from District One, you're most likely going to be beautiful. Think about Hitler's Aryan race. Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall. So basically everything that isn't me. You might have light brown hair and green eyes, and you'll probably be tanned and gorgeous. But not Finnick-gorgeous. Nobody is as beautiful as Finnick.

You're not going to be malnourished. You're not going to have "your ribs sticking out and elbows so sharp they're like the blade of a knife", to quote Melia. You might be slim, but chances are you'll be laden down with muscle. That means that you won't be able to run as fast as, say, someone from District Seven.

And please, for all that is good and holy, DO NOT describe your character as I have Sweetmeat Applepie Dewdrop Honey Melon. Chances are, nobody wants to hear about how perfect your knockers are (if you're a girl). And they especially won't want to hear about how perfect your knockers are if you're a boy.

 **District 2**

The same mostly applies here. No malnourished characters, no disgustingly thin tributes (unless they have an eating disorder, but even then you've got to have a really good reason for that), and your character will most probably be very muscly. Because if you're from Two, you'll be working in the mines, in the factories, or training all day.

 **District 3**

Those from Three are describe – for the most part – as being skinny, pale and dark-haired. The citizens of Three despise the Capitol and want absolutely nothing to do with the Games, so they won't be training up their kids to fight in them. And being quite poor, it's entirely likely that you can get away with a skinny little idiot.

Because you'll most likely get a job in a factory in District Three, your character is going to be pale (Beetee and Wiress are described as both having ashen skin). So basically, don't make a drop-dead gorgeous, blonde, voluptuous, bronze-skinned female if you want to be realistic.

 **District 4**

Most citizens from Four spend their time out in the sun fishing all day, they are going to have bronze skin. They will be muscly. They will have golden or light brown hair. They'll most probably have sea-green, grey or blue eyes. They will be absolutely bloody gorgeous. That's not an invitation to write like you've just vomited a rainbow kitten fairy all over the page.

 **District 5**

Little is known about most people from District Five. But, since they are the power suppliers one can assume that most citizens spend their time in factories. And from Foxface, we know that it's likely that a lot of citizens would be red-haired. Don't stray too far from this. Green or brown eyes, red or brown hair. Pale skin. Possibly freckles if they spend more time outdoors, but this is unlikely.

 **District 6**

Again, little is known about the people of District Six. We have Titus, who was brutal and became cannibalistic during his Games, and we have the two morphlings who were, quite frankly, adorable.

Since District Six's main industry is transportation, The Hunger Games Wiki says that the jobs offered there are porters (they move cars in and out of car dealerships and park them) routers (presumably they have something to do with roads) mechanics (they fix vehicles) conductors (train conductor, they are responsible for the activities of passengers and crew on a train, and help passengers as needed) and baggage handlers, which is fairly self-explanatory.

So it's likely that your tribute will be strong and probably quite dirty, with tanned skin. Don't make them too strong though - they're not a Career.

 **District 7**

"I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK,

I sleep all night and I work all day.

He's a lumberjack and he's OK,

He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I skip and jump

I like to press wild flowers.

I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars."

Okay, so maybe that's not what Johanna does. I guess most kids in Seven would be handling axes, so again they'd be quite strong. And since a lot of the work is cutting down trees and pressing wild flowers, they will have an outdoorsy look to them.

 **District 8**

Similarly to Districts 3 and 5, it's likely that the people of Eight spend most of their time in factories. The only people we know of from here are the female tribute in the first book (poor, poor little idiot), Cecelia (who was barely described, but I imagine her as having light brown curls) and Bonnie and Twill, who are described as fairly small and having light brown eyes. That's all you really have to go from, so feel free to do as you please. Just don't go insane and give your character bright blue hair and purple eyes.

Try and stay fairly natural. Pale skin (remember, setting will affect your character's looks!), blue or brown or green eyes, probably a fairly slim physique because, hey. If you spend your time sewing all day you're not going to have muscles bulging from your shirt.

 **District 9**

Alas, poor District 9! It's rare to see a tribute from here, which is odd. Grain is the bomb. (No pun intended... Prim...) Working with grain and harvesting, we can assume that these people will be similar to District 7. Tanned and athletic, but less so because they're not rich enough to have lots of food and they won't be throwing axes at trees.

Again, you have almost nothing to go from, so pick your own looks. Just try and keep it realistic. It's unlikely that, unless they work in the Justice Building or as a merchant similarly to Peeta, you'll have a character with porcelain skin.

 **District 10**

The only person we know from District 10 is Dalton, the slightly nosy dude who worked on a cow ranch before travelling to District 13. He isn't described at all. But again, it's likely that you'll find the outdoorsy look here, too. Tan skin, perhaps sun-bleached strands of hair?

I have a character in my own fanfiction (totally not advertising) from 10. I gave her dark skin and hair, which fits because while she is well-off and sheltered, her family are cattle herders so she spends most of her time outside.

 **District 11**

I'm pulling from both the book and the movie here. We know that Rue and Thresh both have dark skin, and it's essentially the first thing we know about them. Thresh has "strange golden-brown eyes", which might be a common trait here, though Rue is not described as having this.

Even though Thresh is strong and "built like an ox", Rue tells Katniss that they don't get what they harvest so most people are starving. So don't give your character bulging muscles, again.

In the movie, the whole district is shown as having dark skin. Bear that in mind when creating your character. Having a girl from District 11 with creamy white skin, flowing golden locks and cornflower blue eyes is unrealistic, and quite frankly, shitty writing.

 **District 12**

Finally! District 12! It's established pretty quickly that District 12 is divided into two sections: the merchants and the Seam people.

If your character is from the merchants' area, they'll likely look similar to Peeta. Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes. Probably slightly fatter than those from the Seam, but unless they've been chucking bags of flour over their head or hauling meat carcasses around the butchery their whole life, they'll still be pretty small.

If your character is from the Seam, they'll look like Katniss and Gale. Dark hair, grey eyes and olive skin, and they'll probably be very very skinny.

HOWEVER. As with anything, there are exceptions to these rules, a.k.a, Primrose. Her mother was from the merchants' area of town, meaning she had blonde hair and blue eyes. Mr Everdeen was a miner from the Seam, so he had dark hair and grey eyes. Prim inherited her mother's looks, which is why both of them look so out of place in the Seam. **THIS IS A RARE OCCURRENCE AND SHOULD NOT HAPPEN IN EVERY F*CKING FANFICTION. Okay?**

 **Tips**

 **Try and keep it in the realms of reality**. Unless your character is from the Capitol, they will not have brightly coloured hair or tattooed breasts. I'm so sick of seeing people from Districts 1, 2 and 4 (because they're the usual culprits) who have fancy patterns shaved into their hair or intricate tattoos everywhere. HELLOOOOOO! These are teenagers who are training to kill people. They won't have time to go out and get permanent fixtures attached to their bodies, and it just isn't practical.

 **SETTINGSETTINGSETTINGSETTINGSETTING**. As I stated before, setting is incredibly important. If your character spends all their time sitting inside, sewing doilies for the ponces in the Capitol, they won't have a gorgeous, Finnick-worthy, golden-butter-caramel tan. And their hair, unless, they're graced with awesome genes, will likely be dull and dark. Yes, the sun does actually bleach your hair if you spend enough time outside. Take it from me, the girl who managed to look like Anna whenever I plaited my hair because I had this one annoying, sun-bleached strand.

 **In a dystopian society they won't have jeans or mini-dresses or denim shorts, t-shirts and canvas shoes, or Converses.** These people can barely afford daily meals, so what makes you think your tribute is such a special snowflake that she'll have enough clothing to outfit the whole of Panem? There is no mention of jeans anywhere in the series, and I've read the books many times so I think I'd have picked up on that by now. If your character starts sounding like she could fit right in with today's fashion, you need to rethink their wardrobe.

 **Don't stop and describe how they look right off the bat**. If you start describing your character's appearance within the first few paragraphs, I'll likely put it down straight away. That goes for them observing themselves in a mirror (God-awful cliche right there anyway), another character describing them, or them being exceptionally vain and being like "LOL HAI MY NAME IS BUTTINA AND I'VE GOT EPIC HAIR AND A PERFECT BODY AND GREAT HAIR AND A PERFECT NOSE AND PERFECT SKIN AND PIERCING BLUE-PINK EYES AND YOUR MUM'S CHEST HAIR ON MY FACE." I mean, if you write like that anyway, you have issues.

But let slip details on your character's appearance s-l-o-w-l-y. In my fanfic, Melia says "I'm covered in pale makeup, which feels odd. I don't like looking down at myself and not seeing the olive tan that's so common back home." We know already she's from the Seam, but it's only nine chapter in where she finally describes her skin colour. And don't overdo it on the details, either. Nobody wants to read five pages of your character's appearance.

 **We do not need to hear exactly how your character styled his or her hair before the reaping**. "My hair is tied back in a messy bun with a pink ribbon. I've left a few strands of hair curled in front of my ears so they frame my face, and-" NO. DO YOU HONESTLY THINK I FREAKING CARE ABOUT HOW TOFFEE CHICKENWING BUTTINA THE THIRD DID HER HAIR? I WANT TO GET TO THE GORY, CHILDREN-MURDERING-EACH-OTHER-RIGHT-IN-THE-FACE PARTS, AND YOU CONSTANTLY STOPPING TO DESCRIBE HOW BUTTINA ATTEMPTED A MESSY BUN FOR THREE HOURS IN AN ARENA OF DEATH IS GETTING IN THE WAY OF THAT.

Sorry. Thank you.

SOOOOO, after a long wait, there we have it. How to describe your character's looks. I hope this is helpful!

Next up, we'll give your tribute a (hopefully) loving family! But then again, family devotion only goes so far for most people on reaping day.

Don't forget to bootysmash that vote button, add to your library so you can catch updates like Prim caught fire, and comment down below!

Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!


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